OFF THE WIRE
The latest trend in smoking has been E-cigarettes. They have been
promoted as a much safer alternative to smoking regular cigarettes.
But of course, there’s the old saying that starts out, if it’s too
good to be true…It turns out the Harvard School of Public Health decided
to do a study on E-cigarettes
and the results are startling. It looks as if they may not pose the
traditional cigarette threat, but they pose a different one altogether.
Diacetyl is a flavoring chemical used in E-cigs which are linked to
cases of severe respiratory disease, most notably the incurable
condition called “Popcorn Lung.” This condition was first noticed in
workers in microwave popcorn processing facilities who inhaled the
artificial butter flavoring. The disease is totally debilitating and
irreversible. It’s a respiratory disease which causes scarring in tiny
air sacs in the lungs. This leads to shortness of breath and excessive
coughing.
“The amount of diacetyl in 39 of the e-cigs exceeded the amount that
was able to be detected by the laboratory. Diacetyl and other related
flavoring chemicals are used in many other flavors beyond
butter-flavored popcorn, including fruit flavors, alcohol flavors, and
candy flavored e-cigarettes.”
Allan also noted how scary these findings are as the flavor names of
these e-cigs include cotton candy, cupcake, and other flavors which
would clearly be attractive to young people.
But that’s not all. Due to the fact that e-cigs are so new, it
wouldn’t be a stretch to figure that even more risks will pop up in the
near future. David Christiani, Elkan Blout Professor of Environmental
Genetics, was the co-author of the study and said the following:
“Since most of the health concerns about e-cigarettes have focused on
nicotine, there is still much we do not know about e-cigarettes. In
addition to containing varying levels of the addictive substance
nicotine, they also contain other cancer-causing chemicals, such as
formaldehyde, and as our study shows, flavoring chemicals that can cause
lung damage.”
It looks like the fruity-flavored “safe” alternative to traditional
smoking, may not be all that after all, and it probably is best to cease
any e-cig habits until further research is done on this emerging
smoking trend.
Here’s a video where e-cigs led to devastating results for one man:
